Microsoft President Blames Russia Intelligence Agency for SolarWinds Hack

Washington, Feb 24 (FN Bureau) Microsoft President Brad Smith told a US Senate panel there is substantial evidence that a Russian intelligence agency was involved in the massive SolarWinds hacking attack and there are no leads that would incriminate other suspects. “I do think we can say this. At this stage we have seen substantial evidence that points to the Russian foreign intelligence agency.

US officials have said they agree that Russian hackers are likely behind a massive cyberattack that targeted at least nine federal agencies and 17,000 private companies. The suspects reportedly embedded malware in SolarWinds updates and patches to penetrate the networks in search for sensitive data. Russia has denied the allegations. “We will wait for the rest of formal steps to be taken by the government and others. But there is not a lot of suspense at this moment,” Smith said. President and CEO of the CrowdStrike cybersecurity company George Kurtz agreed that there is no information available to him that would suggest that suspicions against Russia are incorrect. Smith, whose company analyzed the attack in great detail, estimated that at least a thousand very skilled, capable engineers participated in it.

“We haven’t seen this kind of sophistication matched with this kind of scale,” he said. Smith denounced the attack as an indiscriminate “act of recklessness” without “clear analogy or precedent.” He called for attribution and accountability for the culprits. “The world relies on the patching and updating of software… for everything. For physical infrastructure, for hospitals, roads, airports, because they are all run on software. It puts the entire world at a greater risk,” he said. The White House confirmed on Monday that it is weeks away from responding to the SolarWinds attack.